Monday, June 04, 2007

Human Crossings

The history of man’s wanderings. According to what they can determine anywy. Notce that there were several periods of ice and warming during that time. And not an SUV in sight. 

The New Cell Phone/Computer

Apple is running new commercials for its iPhone which clearly demonstrate they will do for cell phones what they did for music players with the iPod. It will change the whole dynamic of the business. When you can read the internet, watch movies, email or make calls all on a tiny unit, that’s amazing. And only the beginning.

There’s a show that runs on the Discovery channel about the history of he iPod. When you see how crude the first iPod was compared to the one they have now, one can only imagine where this will all be in 5 to 10 years time. 

Overwhelming Consensus?

Could it be that Al Gore is a liar? Why would he do that?

“Only an insignificant fraction of scientists deny the global warming crisis. The time for debate is over. The science is settled.”

So said Al Gore ... in 1992. Amazingly, he made his claims despite much evidence of their falsity. A Gallup poll at the time reported that 53% of scientists actively involved in global climate research did not believe global warming had occurred; 30% weren’t sure; and only 17% believed global warming had begun. Even a Greenpeace poll showed 47% of climatologists didn’t think a runaway greenhouse effect was imminent; only 36% thought it possible and a mere 13% thought it probable.

Today, Al Gore is making the same claims of a scientific consensus, as do the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hundreds of government agencies and environmental groups around the world. But the claims of a scientific consensus remain unsubstantiated. They have only become louder and more frequent.

Political elites know that they have to keep the public’s mind focused on an issue to more effectively manipulate them. During the cold war, they used the Red Menace. Environmentalism has become the left’s version of this. With these constant calls to “Save the Planet” and the invention of one bogus environmental disaster after another (DDT, the Population Bomb, Nuclear Power Plants, The Ozone Hole, Global Warming) they can keep the public off balance by inventing new crises to scare people with, so they will consent to their rules. It’s an old game that has been in practice for thousands of years. Leaders rile up their citizens with religious or military arguments in other to get their consent to follow their orders. Because the fact is, not matter how powerful a dictator is, they can’t rule without the public’s consent. If the masses turn on you, that’s it. ence, the powerful Soviet Union collapsed like a house of cards.

Since the right uses military arguments to justify their actions (cold war, war on drugs, war on terror), the left needed something besides socialism to get the people to go their way. Socialism has proven top be a non-starter in the US. Largely because all one has to do is look around to see what a failure it is as a concept. Every country that employs it ends up seeing it fall apart in time. Otherwise nations like China, Russia and Vietnam wouldn’t have changed to market economies.

The benefit of environmentalism is its hard to argue with. Who doesn’t want a cleaner world? Everyone loves nature as long as they don’t have to lbe around it too much. Watching nature shows on TV us a lot more appealing than being out with the woods with mosquitoes and ticks biting you, while you slog through rough terrain while exposed to the vagrancies of the weather. Everyone likes nature in theory. They like it better as warm beaches than scorching deserts or arctic cold. Everyone love sto watch these Penguin movies, but few actually want to see them in their natural environment.

As a result, many people are ignorant of what’s really going on in the natural world. Which is why it’s easy for unscrupulous hacks to tell us this calamity is happening, or that one. And occasionally something will happen to make it seem like they are telling the truth. Chernobyl convinced anti-nuke people that nuclear power was bad, even though that was something that bore no relation at all to what we do in the west. Hurricane Katrina seemed like proof of something the global warming people were saying, even though the devastation of New Orleans had more to do with a levy breaking than the actual storm. And it was one of those 100 year storms that happen every century almost like clockwork.

The truth is, most of the arguments we’re hearing about global warming are based on myths and logical fallacies. When claim they shouldn’t be argued with because the experts all agree, that is a logical fallacy. Experts are often wrong. And they never really prove their consensus. They just claim its real and the press doesn’t question them. The left knows the press is more or less sympathetic to them, so they can get away ith a lot of lies. Journalists are often too lazy to do their homework.

So now we come to Al Gore, who keeps saying he is done with politics. Yet people keep clamoring for him to run. Like the Roman emperor Augustus, it’s an old trick to claim you don’t want power, but the people dragged you into it. That was a tactic that Ross Perot tried in the 90s. Al Gore’s film and book are more self serving that actually being about something. He sets up thi horrible crisis, exaggerates everything so that the scientist he quotes have to come out and say he’s wrong, but the fact that he has recreated himself as this leader for the planet’s survival should tell you what his motives are.

The left has found people are less resistant to their calls for more power and taxes if they are told it will save their lives in some way. Since military arguments are out of the question, they are resorting to scaring us with Ice Melts.

When the argument is replaced by another, the old one quietly fades away, The boogie man of Nuclear Power has no been replaced by calls for more nuclear power plants, because they are clean. Eventually, Global Warming will be quietly dropped as an argument, but not until they have used it to grab more power and tax dollars for themselves. 

The History of Video Games

Lots of memories. It’s hard to believe some of those crappy looking games were considered so much fun. But they were. 

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Beam Me Up

Scientists have set a new record in sending information through thin air using the revolutionary technology of quantum teleportation - although Mr Spock may have to wait a little longer for a Scotty to beam him up with it.

A team of physicists has teleported data over a distance of 89 miles from the Canary Island of La Palma to the neighbouring island of Tenerife, which is 10 times further than the previous attempt at teleportation through free space.

The scientists did it by exploiting the “spooky” and virtually unfathomable field of quantum entanglement - when the state of matter rather than matter itself is sent from one place to another. Tiny packets or particles of light, photons, were used to teleport information between telescopes on the two islands. The photons did it by quantum entanglement and scientists hope it will form the basis of a way of sending encrypted data.

The teleporters used in Star Trek are said to have been based on the idea of quantum entanglement and the latest study demonstrates that elements of the phenomenon could have a practical use in the real world.

However, quantum entanglement has so far been carried out only on the simplest forms of matter and scientists believe that a fundamentally new approach will be needed if it can ever be used for teleporting people or even non-living objects.

The teleporters in Star Trek were just made up because the producers felt it would cost too much to have a shuttle craft. Maybe they’re talking about the later shows. Regardless, this is interesting news. 

Saturday, June 02, 2007

These People Are Crazy

The Global Warming loons continue to pull out their hair and howl at the moon. And in doing so, they are dragging politicians into the mix, which will be bad news for all of us.

Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has revealed.

They have found that emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted.

News of the studies - which are bound to lead to calls for even tougher anti-pollution measures than have yet been contemplated - comes as the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations prepare for the most crucial meeting yet on tackling climate change.

The issue will be top of the agenda of the G8 summit which opens in the German Baltic resort of Heiligendamm on Wednesday, placing unprecedented pressure on President George Bush finally to agree to international measures.

These measures will mean more laws limiting our choices and freedoms. Watch.

And its all for nothing. 

Things Change. Sometimes for the Better

Pungent smoke floats through the chandeliers of the tribal chief’s reception room. At his home in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province and a onetime Iraqi insurgent stronghold, Sheik Shakir Saoud Aasi is enjoying after-dinner cigars with his guest of honor, battalion commander Lt. Col. Craig Kozeniesky of the 2/5 Marines. Around the room, Marines and Iraqi tribesmen and police are sitting together, swapping jokes and stories. Some of these Iraqis were probably shooting at Americans less than a year ago. Now they and the Marines are fighting side by side against Al Qaeda. “We are not just friends but also brothers,” the sheik tells Kozeniesky. “This is a new beginning for both of us.” Kozeniesky can only agree: “Things have changed dramatically.” A 5-year-old Iraqi boy in traditional robes and headdress is racing around the room and vaulting into U.S. troops’ laps. What does he want to be when he grows up? He proudly announces: “American general named Steve!”

From Newsweek of all places.

Quote of the Day

“The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.” Peter O’Toole (Age 75)

Friday, June 01, 2007

Oops

That’s gotta hurt.

Crazy Dubai

Some really amazing and weird buildings going up in Dubai.

Including the world’s two tallest buildings.

Some of these buildings will be wind powered, which is fascinating.

I really think the UAE government is smart to make Dubai this center of the Mid East. Aside from being a moderate country, making a Mid-East destination an attraction in the region that’s stable and beautiful is something the rest of the Arab world needs to think about emulating, and get away from these stone age polices they’ve been having.